ASSIGNMENT

Course Code : MS – 2

Course Title : Management of Human Resources

Assignement Code : MS-2 /TMA/SEM-II/2020

Coverage : All Blocks

Note: Attempt all the questions and submit this assignment to the Coordinator of your
Study Centre on or before 31st October, 2020.

1. Why there is a need of managing human resource management in changing

scenario? Discuss how various perspectives of human resource management is
originating with due course of globalization.

2. How Outsourcing recruitment process is helpful in extracting a pool of talented

candidates for an organization? “Socialization and mobility helps individuals to
identify their organization roles”, explain the statement in your own words.

3. Training and development is an age old concept of in an organizational which is

getting replaced with learning organization”, explain. How does mentoring and
coaching influences learning organization?

4. How does Workers’ Participation in Management influence to industrial

democracy? Is it necessary to empower individuals at lower levels for democratic
organization?

5. Why does an organization face reluctance towards performance appraisal within

an organization? How does performance counseling can address such issues?
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ASSIGNMENT REFERENCE MATERIAL (July20 to Dec20)

MS-02

MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Q1. Why there is a need of managing human resource management in changing

scenario? Discuss how various perspectives of human resource management is
originating with due course of globalization.

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Ans:- The main objective of HRM is the effective utilization of manpower, working in an
organization, to achieve the organization goals and to survive. A business entity is long term
planning with the main objectives of growth, profitability and meeting community needs. The
employees of the organization put their best efforts in order to achieve, organization
objectives. But with the passage of time, the organization losses its vital part (employees) due
to death, retirement, dismissal turn over etc. Thus, HRM is concerned with the process of

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procuring, development and maintaining competent work force.

According to Glueas, “HRM is concerned with the most effective use of people to achieve
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organization and individual goals”. In other words, it is a way of managing people at works,
so that they give their best to the organization.

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MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE EMERGING SCENARIO:
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However, during the last century, due to various changes at national and international level
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have caused the entire world to come together like war, IT inventions, globalization,
liberalization etc. All these resulted into cross culture, border world and power of knowledge
with global citizens with global attitude, tastes and network.
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(a) Human Resources are heterogeneous : They consist of many different individuals, each
of them has a unique personality, a combination of different emotional response to different
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value, attitude motives and modes of thought.

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(b) Different behavior : Human beings behave in different and complicated ways. Their
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reactions promises, praise or criticism is quite different. It is very difficult to predict

employees behavior while working in group as behavior is changing with situations.
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CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED IN HRM

An organization is a group of people, whose activities have been planned and coordination to
meet the organization objectives. The “vital resources” of any organization, its employees
(people) of course, it does not appears in the organizations annual report and mission
statement. An organization producing goods and service, has better chances to grow survive
and prospect provided have right people. The vast majority of people works to support
themselves and their family and for many other reasons

(i) To keep themselves busy

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(ii) Feel useful to society

(iii) To create and achieve something

(iv) To gain recognition

However (central) challenge facing society is the continuous improvement of our

organization both private and public. Another important purpose of HRM is to improve
productivity through effective and efficient use of resources. The higher productivity gained
through HR efforts enables managers to reduce costs, save scare resources, enhance profit,
offer better pays, benefit and working conditions to employees.

a) Historical Perspective on HRM:- As the early developments have already been discussed

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under historical antecedents of HRM, what follows will cover the recent trends only.

Recent Trends

The HRM function started getting attention and focus as research began to question the
notion that job satisfaction and productivity are strongly related. In the US, the civil rights

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movement of the 1960s produced a good deal of legislation bearing on employment
relationships. Further, the increase in discrimination-based litigation during the 1970s
boosted the legitimacy of the HRM function in organisations.
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b) Environmental Perspective on HRM:- The legal environment serves as the filter and as
the ultimate mechanism for merging fact and value in society. When you examine legislation

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enacted during the human relations movement, you will note that it dealt extensively with
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wages and work hours. It also dealt with union-managment relations within the organisation.
It provided for supervising those relations, i.e., the rights of employees to organise and
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bargain collectively vis-a-vis the rights of the employer and the union. In the US, these laws
are still in force, but the federal laws enacted during the 1960s and 70s dealt more directly
with the rights of the individual (or of classes of individuals, such as minorities and women)
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in a wide range of issues concerning employer rights.

Q2. How Outsourcing recruitment process is helpful in extracting a pool of talented

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candidates for an organization? “Socialization and mobility helps individuals to identify

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their organization roles”, explain the statement in your own words.

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Ans:- Preparation for Recruitment

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Before you think of inviting people to apply for a job you have to decide what types of
persons are to be invited and what their characteristics should be. This calls for fixing the ‘job
specifications’ which may also be called ‘man specifications’.

The various elements of job specification.

Physical Specifications: For certain jobs some special physical features may be required. For
example, for assembly of a TV set or some other electronic equipment good vision is
required, for a typing job you need finger dexterity, for a heavy job you need a strong, heavy
and thick-set body. The particular physical abilities and skills necessary for a given job have

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to be specified. These may refer to height, weight, vision, finger dexterity, voice, poise, hand
and foot coordination, motor coordination, colour discrimination, age-range, etc.

Mental Specifications: These include intelligence, memory, judgement, ability – plan, ability
to estimate, to read, to write, to think and concentrate, scientific faculties, arithmetical
abilities, etc. Different jobs require different degrees of such abilities and the more important
ones should be specified.

Emotional and Social Specifications: These include characteristics which will affect his
working with others, like personal appearance, manners, emotional stability, aggressiveness,
or submissiveness, extroversion or introversion, leadership, cooperativeness, initiative and
drive, skill in dealing with others, socia1 adaptability, etc.

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Behavioral Specifications: Certain management personnel at higher levels of management
are expected to behave in a particular manner. These are not formally listed but have to be
kept in mind during the process of recruitment, selection and placement.

Sources of Manpower

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There are two categories of sources of supply of manpower— Internal and External.

Internal Sources: These include personnel already on the pay-roll of the organization as also
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those who were once on the pay-roll of the company but who plan to return, or whom the
company, would like to rehire. These include those who quit voluntarily or those on
production lay-offs.

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External Sources: These sources lie outside the organization, like the new entrants to the
labour force without experience. These include college students, the unemployed with a
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wider range of skills and abilities, the retired experienced persons, and others not in the
labour force, like married women.
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A policy of preferring people from within is advantageous as it improves the morale of the
employees and promotes loyalty among them towards the organization. This also helps
employers as they are in a better position to evaluate those already with them and as these
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people require no induction.

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A role set is the entire configuration of surrounding roles as they affect a particular role, such
as the foreman’s role just described. That is, all the different persons with whom the foreman
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interacts in this role of foreman have role expectations concerning the way in which he
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should act, and these expectations collectively make up the role set for his role as foreman,
this role set arises partly from the nature of the job itself, because managers in equivalent jobs
but in different companies tend to perceive and play their roles in about the same way.
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the new organizational planning function to their departments. Regarding the existence of
role conflict research suggests that a manager bases his decision primarily on legitimacy
(which expectations he thinks is more “right” and reasonably) and sanction (how he thinks he
will be affected if he follows one expectation in preference to the other).

Q3. Training and development is an age old concept of in an organizational which is

getting replaced with learning organization”, explain. How does mentoring and
coaching influences learning organization?

Ans:- Training and development is one of the lowest things on the priority list of most
companies. When it's organized, it is often at the persistence of the human resources

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department. There is, however, enormous value in organizing proper training and
development sessions for employees. Training allows employees to acquire new skills,
sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity and be better leaders. Since a
company is the sum total of what employees achieve individually, organizations should do
everything in their power to ensure that employees perform at their peak.

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Here are a few reasons that demonstrate the importance of training and development.

New Hire Orientation:- Training is particularly important for new employees. This can be
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conducted by someone within the company and should serve as a platform to get new
employees up to speed with the processes of the company and address any skill gaps.

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Tackle shortcomings:- Every individual has some shortcomings and training and
development helps employees iron them out. For example, at Rate Gain we have divided the
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entire headcount in several groups to provide focused training which is relevant to those
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groups - sales training, first time managers, middle management, senior leadership, executive
leadership.
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Improvement in performance:- If shortcomings and weaknesses are addressed, it is obvious

that an employee's performance improves. Training and development, however, also goes on
to amplify your strengths and acquire new skill sets. It is important for a company to break
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down the training and development needs to target relevant individuals. If I can draw
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examples from my organization, every department has targeted training groups. These
generally revolve around product development training, QA training, PMP among others
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where internal and external process experts facilitate various programs.

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Q4. How does Workers’ Participation in Management influence to industrial

democracy? Is it necessary to empower individuals at lower levels for democratic
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organization?
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Ans:- One of the important requirements of industrial relation is industrial democracy.

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Worker’s participation in management (WPM) is essentially a step in promoting industrial

democracy. This is the modem trend in industrial world both in developed and developing
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countries. This is a concept of extending democracy of political systems in government to the

industries.

The form, structure and the content of WPM vary with social norms and nature of
government in each country. WPM takes the shape of self- management, co-determination,
worker director and joint management councils. Despite variation in interpretation, all agree
that participation means sharing the decision making power between management and
workers.

Participate may protect the interests of both parties. But more than this protection,
participation is a system of checks and balances which prevents exploitations and provides

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equity and fairness. This requires great awareness, education and conceptual skill from both
the parties, to make WPM, a success.

Workers’ participation in management is a highly complex concept. The notion that workers
should participate in the management of enterprises which employ them is not a new concept.
It has apparently existed since the beginning of the industrial revolution. However, its
importance increased gradually over a period of years due to the growth of large-scale
enterprises, increase in work-force, paternalistic philosophy and practice of informal
consultation. Moreover, the growth of professionalism in industry, advent of democracy, and
development of the principle of social justice, transformation of traditional labour
management relations have added new dimensions to the concept of participative
management. The philosophy underlying workers’ participation stresses: (i) democratic
participation in decision-making; (ii) maximum employer-employee collaboration; (iii)

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minimum state intervention; (iv) realisation of a greater measure of social justice; (v) greater
industrial efficiency; and (vi) higher level of organisational health and effectiveness.

It has been varyingly understood and practised as a system of joint consultation in industry;
as a form of labour management cooperation; as a recognition of the principle of co-
partnership, and as an instrument of industrial democracy.

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Consequently, participation has assumed different forms, varying from mere voluntary
sharing of information by management with the workers to formal participation by the latter
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in actual decision-making process of management.

Workers’ participation in management is mental and emotional involvement in group

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Industrial Democracy situation which encourages workers to contribute to group goals and
share responsibility. Participation has three ideas:
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i) First, participation means mental and emotional involvement, rather than mere muscular
activity. A person’s self is involved rather than his body. It is more psychological than
physical.
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ii) Second idea in participation is that it motivates persons to contribute to achievement of

organisational goals by creative suggestions and initiatives.
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iii) Third area is that it encourages people to accept responsibility. They are ready to work
with the manager, instead of against him.
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To put it briefly, it is team working together for a common purpose, it is a notion of industrial
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democracy. Workers have greater say over their work situation.

Objectives of Workers Participation in Management

The objectives of workers’ participation in management are as follows:

i) To raise level of motivation of workers by closer involvement.

ii) To provide opportunity for expression and to provide a sense of importance to workers.

iii) To develop ties of understanding leading to better effort and harmony.

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iv) To act on a device to counter-balance powers of managers.

v) To act on a panacea for solving industrial relation problems.

Q5. Why does an organization face reluctance towards performance appraisal within an
organization? How does performance counseling can address such issues?

Ans. Problem in performance appraisal

The problem with subjective measure is the rating which is not verifiable by others and has
the opportunity for bias. The rate biases include:

(a) Halo Effect: It is the tendency of the raters to depend excessively on the rating of one

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trait or behavioral consideration in rating all others traits or behavioral considerations. One
way of minimizing the halo effect is appraising all the employees by one trait before going to
rate on the basis of another trait.

(b) The error of Central Tendency: Some raters follow play safe policy by rating all the
employees around the middle point of the rating scale and they avoid rating the people at both

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the extremes of the scale. They follow play safe policy because of answerability to
management or lack of knowledge about the job and person he is rating or least interest in his
job.
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(c) The Leniency and Strictness: The leniency bias crops when some raters have a tendency
to be liberal in their rating by assigning higher rates consistently. Such ratings do not serve

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any purpose. Equally damaging one is assigning consistently low rates.
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Ways to improve
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The issues raised above essentially focus on the problems of reliability and validity of
performance appraisal. In other words, how do we know whether what is appraised is what
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was supposed to be appraised. As long as appraisal format and procedure continues to

involve subjective judgment, this question cannot be fully answered and perhaps, will not be
answered completely because no matter how objective a system is designed it will continue to
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be subjective. Perhaps, the following steps can help improve the system.
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(a) The supervisors should be told that performance appraisal is an integral part of their job
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duties and that they themselves would be evaluated on how seriously they have taken this
exercise.
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(b) To help them do this task well, they should be provided systematic training on writing
performance reports and handling performance interviews.

(c) Conduct job evaluation studies and prepare job descriptions/roles and develop separate
forms for various positions in the organization.

As time passes, changes in technology and work environment necessitate changes in tasks,
abilities and skills to perform these tasks. If changes in the format are not incorporated, the
reports may not generate the kind of data needed to satisfy appraisal objectives.

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In addition, following can also help in improving the effectiveness of an appraisal:

(a) Behaviorally anchored rating scales: Also known as the Behavioral expectations scale,
this method represents the latest innovation in performance appraisal. It is a combination of
the rating scale and critical incident techniques of employee performance evaluation. The
critical incidents serve as anchor statements on a scale and the rating form usually contains
six to eight specifically defined performance dimensions.

(b) Ongoing Feedback: Employees like to know how they are doing. The annual review,
where the manager shares the subordinates’ evaluations with them, can become a problem. In
some cases, it is a problem merely because managers put off such reviews. This is
particularly likely if the appraisal is negative. The solution lies in having the manager share
with the subordinate both expectations and disappointments on a day-to-day basis. By

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providing the employee with frequent opportunities to discuss performance before any
reward or punishment consequences occur, there will be no surprises at the time of the annual
formal review. In fact, where ongoing feedback has been provided, the formal sitting down
step should not be particularly traumatic for either party.

(c) Multiple Raters: As the number of raters increase, the probability of attaining more

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accurate information increases. If rater error tends to follow a normal curve, an increase in
the number of raters will tend to find the majority congregating about the middle. If a person
has had ten supervisors, nine having rated him or her excellent and one poor, we can discount
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the value of the one poor evaluation.

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